Alaska for our 25th

[Ted]

Finally finding the time to do a TR for our Alaska trip. We are not retired so don’t have the time to make the trip in our own camper. So we flew to Anchorage, rented an RV and drove around for a couple of weeks, took a cruise from Anchorage to Vancouver, then flew home. For those of you with limited time off like us, I highly recommend the RV rental route. We will definitely do it again. We used Great Alaskan Holidays and were very happy with the rental and company.
An RV rental is a popular way to visit Alaska. We saw hundreds, from trucks with campers to diesel pushers. Ours was a 25’ Winnebago, a reasonable compromise. Being used to our camper, the room it provided was luxurious yet we were still able to get into nice campsites.

Going in at the end of the tourist season in September had advantages and disadvantages. The good: plenty of camping available even in the popular areas, almost no mosquitoes, fantastic Fall colors, all souvenirs half off. The not so good: Caribou had already migrated so missed them, moose hunting season so they were all hiding.
Fall colors in Alaska are impressive. We are used to patches of Aspens providing the color from our usual eastern Sierras trips. In Alaska the color comes from much more of the vegetation, sometimes reaching for miles over entire hillsides.

 

[Ted]

It seemed like there was never a bad view in Alaska. About the only negative was when there was low cloud cover you wondered what you were missing. Still not sure which impressed me more, the mountains or coastal locations. There are something like 15,000 glaciers in Alaska, many easily accessible. Took more photos on this trip than any other.

 

[Ted]

And the glaciers.

 

[Ted]

We saw most of the wildlife in Denali, especially the grizzlies, but saw some most places. Grizzley and Black bears, wolf, whales, otters, and plenty of Bald eagles.

 

[Ted]

I was impressed with this method of keeping bears from breaking into a cabin.

Saw some great rigs all over the place, including a FWC sighting in Skagway.

 

[Ted]

Some shots of towns. Chitina (pronounced Chitna) was like the town in Northern Exposure, right down to the moose walking through town. Ketchikan was horribly touristy. Valdez was very pretty.

Finally moved on to our cruise south. The weather wasn’t cooperating and we sat in dock an extra day.

In Skagway I enjoyed a Spruce Tip Blonde and a Chilkoot Trail IPA. Then we caught the train through the White Pass and into the Yukon.

 

[Ted]

In Juneau we took a hike to Mendenhall Glacier and even held an authentic iceberg. This one was a little smaller than the one the Titanic hit though.

By the time we got to Ketchikan the weather improved a lot. A heat wave to them but pleasant to us. A couple of common sights are float planes and “Deadly Catch” tours.

Takeaways from the trip – Alaska is fantastic. In three weeks we could only see some of what we would like to see. On future trips it will be difficult to decide between visiting favorite places from this trip or seeing new places. But there will be future trips.

 

[4llamas]

Thanks for the TR, Ted. It looks like a good time.

 

[pvstoy]

Took more photos on this trip than any other.



I'm proud of you Ted... Thanks for sharing your trip and some nice images too!!!

 

[Edgewood]

Nice TR. We will do that in the future. I hear the grizzles like to be scratched behind the ears. Did you do that?

 

[highz]

Looks like it was a great trip. Enjoyed your pics a lot.

 

[chnlisle]

Wonderful pix Ted!

 

[MarkBC]

Thanks for the great trip report, photos, Ted.

Now that you have your new camera, you'll HAVE to go back!

It's been many years since I've visited Alaska, but I still tell stories about what I experienced -- close-encounter with a grizzly while backpacking in Denali, the above-the-arctic-circle-fox that stole my tent-stuff-sack, etc.. Time to generate new stories, I think. Thanks for the inspiration.

 

[ski3pin]

Ted, thanks for sharing your trip. The Lady & I just enjoyed your report and very nice photos. Maybe someday we'll get up there!

 

[generubin]

Ted, Incredible pics!!! I especially enjoyed the fall colors and the grizzly shots. I don't know how you could have waited so long to share these with us.
Gene

 

[takesiteasy]

Thanks for the report. This is one of our dream trips. Thanks for sharing the photos- good for motivation to get our own trip organized.

 

[craig333]

Thanks Ted. Can't way till its my turn to go.

 

[clikrf8]

Wow, I didn't know Alaska had such wonderful fall color. Was it that colorful in Southeast or too early compared to Anchorage area? Thanks for photos and TR to remind me what a beautiful place Alaska is. I spent 2 seasons crewing on a gilnetter in Southeast based out of Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway. Saw many whales, eagles, otters, seals but no bears even when I took the skiff ashore to look for agates and grab floats. Since we live in Bellingham, we can take the Alaska Ferry up through the Inside Passage. Your TR gave me a little shove.

 

[Ted]

Thank you for all the nice comments, folks. For those of you tempted to go to Alaska for the first time or for a re-visit, I can't encourage you enough. Even if you just fly in for a one week trip, the place is amazing. That is most likely what our future trips will be as the time we took off for this trip was a first. But that leaves so many opportunities. Kodiak Island, back to Denali, Fairbanks in the winter for the northern lights. We are already planning all of these.

clikrf8, the colors in Denali were best, probably due to altitude and vegetation. But we had good colors throughout most of the trip. We have no idea if this was a usual year or not though, so hard to say about the timing. It seemed the colors were not there in the southern areas, so you are probably right about it being too soon for there.

 

[generubin]

Ted, yep, you got the Alaska bug, you're done for now! If you ever get the time, make the drive up there. Inland BC, Yukon and, my favorite, NW Territories are wonderful!

Not so far north but a wonderful trip with grizzlies, wolves and fall colors is the Bella Coola valley of BC. You can take a ferry there from Vancouver and then drive back through BC, or the other way around.